1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to a network management system and more particularly to a multi-tiered architecture for a user interface.
2. Background Art
Modern networks are comprised of heterogeneous network elements (NEs), the physical hardware connections between NEs, and the software used to send, receive and route data.
Numerous problems may arise in a network, such as traffic overload on parts of the network, optimum placement of network resources, security, detection of network faults, etc. It is therefore known to provide the network with a network management system to receive real time information regarding the status of the network elements and systematize this knowledge such that common problems can be detected, isolated and repaired, either automatically or by the maintenance personnel.
Inspired by the technological and architectural advances in data communication and in particular in the telecommunication world, network management systems are rapidly evolving toward highly distributed, multi-vendor systems, with open interfaces, and applications that are independent from the underlaying transport technologies. The fundamental driver for this evolution is the need to develop and deploy highly scalable new services in a rapid and cost-effective manner.
The intent of the network management tools is to provide a centralized view of the network, enabling correlation of events and conditions that span the network elements and subnetworks, as well as to facilitate the management of a non-homogenous collection of network elements.
Modern network managers maintain a complete and up-to-date representation of the network and the technologies involved. It is essential for a user to have access to this information for using this real-time knowledge efficiently. An important aspect of a network management system is the way this information is presented to the user and the degree of interaction permitted between the user and the network, in other words, the network-user interface.
In general, the user interface resides at the client terminal and is adapted to communicate with the reminder of the system. Network information is presented on a screen using icons, and the user has the ability to select additional information about a particular object model, including object models of network equipment and connectivity between the equipment, in a clear and well-organized, condensed way.
Large networks and complex network management functionality often results in client applications that are large, slow to respond and expensive to operate. The division of large applications into three tiers, namely UI, business logic, database/network, is the most common solution to this problem. However, the three-tier architecture typically results in poor UI performance or large UI clients.
Other ad-hock solutions are possible, but they require a new creative effort for each application and may be hard to implement. They also typically fail to provide a clean separation of concerns.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,375,199 (Harrow et al.) issued on Dec. 20, 1994 and assigned to Digital Equipment Corporation discloses a system monitoring device which displays historical and real time information and allows a user to interactively manipulate the information being displayed.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/764,086 (Planas et al.) filed on Dec. 6, 1996 and assigned to Northern Telecom Limited, discloses a GUI able to present a large number of NEs to the user and the tools used to perform maintenance, surveillance, and administration of the network. Tasks performed include alarm monitoring, test and diagnosis of faults, performance monitoring, connection management, accounting, and security operations.
However, these patents are not concerned with separating the user interface into a client and a server part for reducing the size of the software on the user's terminal.
There is a need for a high performance and feature rich user interface, which does not burden the client terminal with a large piece of software and which does not use high bandwidth for connection to the server.